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Bible versions

Quotations:

"One who translates a verse literally is misrepresenting the
test, but one who adds anything of his own is a blasphemer." Ancient
Jewish saying regarding the Bible. 1

"A translation is artful to the extent that one can forget, while
reading it, that it is a translation at all." R.J. Miller. 2

"Translation is always a compromise, some say even a betrayal. If
translators strive to make the Greek of the Gospel of Mark sound as familiar to
the modern American ear as the original did to its first readers, will they not
have translated out much that was there in the text? Will they not have
eliminated the archaic in the interests of readability?" R.J. Miller. 2

"...the 'enemies of the cross'...have already, to some degree,
been partially successful at detaching the Words of the Bible from our
hearts. There is a plan being carefully implemented to unlease [sic] a flood of
bible versions to the public. (Some folks recognize that they are actually
'perversions.')." Richard Knox. 3

"A reliable mark of a translator's integrity is most often found
in passages which are hard to reconcile with his own theology or
doctrine. Most of these may be grouped under: (1) the
nature of God and
Christ; (2) the nature of man [e.g., the soul]; (3) the nature of
atonement; and (4) prophecy." James Parkinson.
4

About Bible translations:

Many Christians -- particularly from the conservative wing of the
religion, believe that God inspired the authors of the Bible to write text
that was inerrant -- free of error.
However, that belief extends only to the original hand-written text -- not
necessarily to later copies.

Unfortunately, errors have crept in during subsequent copying of Bible
texts. In various locations in the Bible:

Text was inserted that better reflected the evolving
beliefs of the Christian movement.

Margin notes that someone had added to a copy of the
Bible were incorporated into the text of subsequent copies.

Short passages were simply deleted because they were an
embarrassment to the church.

As earlier manuscripts are discovered, some of these forgeries are
being uncovered, and modern Bible translations corrected. However,
some established versions of the Bible, like the King James Version, remain
uncorrected.

Another problem is that Bibles have been traditionally translated by a
team of theologians who hold very similar religious beliefs. For example,
although Crossway Bibles claims that their English Standard Version
' Publishing Team "includes more than 100 people from many
denominations and countries," all of the people involved in the
translation appear to be from Fundamentalist and other Evangelical
denominations.

A third concern is that translators can be influenced by economic
concerns. Certain passages have traditionally been translated to
condemn all "Witches" and
condemn all homosexual behavior as an
"abomination." If these passages were accurately translated, many
potential buyers would probably refuse to purchase the Bible.